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Ever Wanted an Empire of Adorable Hellbeasts?

Impire. Impire. Say it to yourself aloud a few times. Right, so it doesn't sound particularly fearsome -- I actually find myself imagining an imp with a limp more than anything -- but the new "action-strategy" game, released yesterday, promises you'll be able to carve out an underground lair and fill it with demons.

It also allows for some exquisite punnage, if the press release by Paradox Interactive (or should I say, Paradox Impteractive) is anything to go by:

Impire tells the Impudent tale of Baal-Abaddon, an Impatient and Impulsive demon Imprisoned in an Impractical Imp body by the Impotent and Impaired sorcerer, Oscar van Fairweather. The situation is Imperfect, but not Impossible; Baal will have to Improvise to Impress allies, Impede and Impale raiding parties of Impolite heroes, and Improve his Impish body to reclaim his Imperial throne. Okay, we're done.

Thank the devil for that. Anyway, this seems like kind of a neat twist on the hellspawn-ridden depths of dungeon-based games like Diablo -- even the runtiest of demons has a story, y'know? And I'm sure most of us have wished we could unleash a torrent of beasts on the typically whiny heroes of fantasy games.
Impire's available now at a bunch of places, including Steam and its own official website. We tinkered with an early build of Impire last year, and I'm curious to see what's changed between then and the release build. It's a winning concept, but as our Spy Guy ponders, will developer Cyanide's mediocre history taint this new outing into hell?